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The stories near you
• WUFT News: New protections for the Rice’s Whale in the Gulf of Mexico delayed until December. "The Gulf of Mexico is haunted by a ghost. The animal is as big as a school bus, but glides unseen through the ocean’s twilight zone, its low moans echoing in the dim water. A creature so elusive, researchers can spend days searching without ever glimpsing one."
• Ocala Star-Banner ($): Susan Lorincz's sister arrested, charged with child neglect. "Ellyn D. Lorincz has been charged with child neglect without great bodily harm. She was taken into custody on Aug. 23 and transported to the Marion County Jail for booking. The 56-year-old Ocala woman was released early Sunday morning after posting a $1,000 bond."
• Florida Storms: Florida's Labor Day Weekend forecast: more moisture coming! "Rain chances are likely to increase across the northern half of the state by Monday as a cold front approaches, but loses its speed, and could become stationary. Coincidentally there will be an influx of moisture from the tropics surging across South Florida, which will enhance showers and thunderstorm activity across much of the state."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Silver Airways to stop Gainesville to Fort Lauderdale flight. "The airline is also eliminating seven other routes according to AeroRoutes.com. Two flights from West Palm Beach to Tampa and to Nassau, Bahamas, will also end on Oct. 6."
• Florida Storms: Saharan dust and the 2024 hurricane season- here’s an update. "The National Hurricane Center is becoming more interested in a tropical wave in the mid-Atlantic. Some long-range computer models are also picking up on the possibility of the system developing and moving toward the Caribbean over the weekend or early next week."
• WUFT News: ‘She’s remarkable’: Billy Bob Sykes, 99, still lifts dumbbells and spirits at local gym. "Clad in a bright pink bowtie atop a white polo, dark track pants and white sneakers, Billie Bob Sykes uses a walker to stroll across the gym floors of a large local health and fitness center."
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Around the state
• NPR: Florida felons could get a bit more clarity on their voting rights with a new proposal. "Florida’s Department of State is considering a proposal to formalize how people who served time for a felony conviction can ask the state to clarify if they have met all the requirements to get their voting rights back. The rule change would eventually need to be approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis."
• Central Florida Public Media: First local cases of dengue in modern history confirmed in Orange County, Florida. "Dengue can only spread in Florida if a person who acquired dengue from outside the country is bit by a mosquito that can carry it. Luckily, it doesn’t fly very far with a flight range of 200 yards."
• WGCU-Fort Myers: Hurricane Ian memorial proposal offered to Fort Myers; city defers plan to Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach. "16-year-old twins Paul and Violet Schwartz collected more than 300 names on a petition to create a Hurricane Ian Memorial within the city of Fort Myers as a lasting tribute to the spirit, resilience and memory of the storm’s victims and survivors."
• Associated Press: Bond is denied for a former Okaloosa County deputy in the shooting of an airman. "A judge denied bond on Tuesday for a fired deputy in the shooting of a Black U.S. Air Force senior airman who answered his apartment door while holding a gun pointed at the floor."
• WLRN-Miami: Plans for pickleball courts in park steeped in Black history draws outcry in Broward. "A state plan that proposed changes to a number of state parks includes Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park, which was Broward's designated "Colored Beach" during the segregation era."
From NPR News
• Law: Jack Smith files superseding indictment against Trump in Jan. 6 case
• Space: Boeing faces hard questions about Starliner and its future in space
• Politics: Trump campaign staff had altercation with official at Arlington National Cemetery
• World: Germany's grandmothers take on the far-right ahead of key state elections
• National: A new poll reveals the worries of Gen Z kids — and how parents can support them
• Culture: Mariah Carey says her mother and sister died on the same day
Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.